Is This Camshaft Reusable? Or Too Pitted?

[West 1]

Geotrash Dave nailed it and I forgot to point this out. When you pull the heads coolant will seep into the head bolt holes in the block. These must be blown out before the heads are installed or you will be torquing against the coolant in the threaded holes and not torquing the head. Double check and make sure the bolt holes are blown out and clean before attempting the head install.

 

[strutaeng]

Agreed. You can cut some slots on the old bolt heads with an angle grinder and a cut off disc along the bolts' longitudinal axis. Use that as "free" thread chasers (they are getting thrown away anyways.) Then spray the holes with some lubricant and blow off the excess with compressed air.

 

[jmo2610]

Geotrash Dave nailed it and I forgot to point this out. When you pull the heads coolant will seep into the head bolt holes in the block. These must be blown out before the heads are installed or you will be torquing against the coolant in the threaded holes and not torquing the head. Double check and make sure the bolt holes are blown out and clean before attempting the head install.

Luckily, I did already have a friend warn me about this.

I bought the torque to yield bolts. Maybe I should've gotten the ARP ones and saved myself some headache. My neighbor let me borrow his degree tool, so that probably shifted my purchase. One less thing to buy.

At this point, I'm still in the removal phase. For those who have done this, did y'all remove the oil pan and replace the pressure relief valve?

 

[West 1]

I always remove the oil pan and replace the Oring on the pick up tube. Since you have the timing cover and cam out you can remove the oil pump and shim the pump spring for a little extra oil pressure. With the new cam install and no more AFM lifters the second pressure relief valve in the pan near the oil filter location is not necessary. It is only there to protect the AFM lifters from too much pressure. With the AFM removed this pressure relief can actually be plugged off but that is up to you. Most important is to replace the Oring on the pick up tube and watch out on this install, I think there are 3 Oring types used over the years. Melling and Fel Pro both have install sheets that show which to use based on your pick up tube design.

 

[jmo2610]

Well, the cam is out. I'm not sure if it looks all that bad or not. The "pitting" certainly seemed to look worse on my phone when I made those videos earlier. With my bare eyes, it doesn't look all that terrible (and I don't need readers... yet ). So maybe I created a whole bunch of extra work for myself. Or maybe not. You guys tell me, is this cam toast? I'm replacing it anyway at this point. Just curious on your opinions.

 

[Geotrash]

I always remove the oil pan and replace the Oring on the pick up tube. Since you have the timing cover and cam out you can remove the oil pump and shim the pump spring for a little extra oil pressure. With the new cam install and no more AFM lifters the second pressure relief valve in the pan near the oil filter location is not necessary. It is only there to protect the AFM lifters from too much pressure. With the AFM removed this pressure relief can actually be plugged off but that is up to you. Most important is to replace the Oring on the pick up tube and watch out on this install, I think there are 3 Oring types used over the years. Melling and Fel Pro both have install sheets that show which to use based on your pick up tube design.

+1. I replaced the valve in the oil pan with a new one when I did my cam swap, knowing that I could plug it as well. I was installing a high volume oil pump, so it seemed like extra insurance against oil pressure being too high, etc, but I know now that I needn't have worried, and it's a pop-off style valve anyway. In any case, the new valve will last the life of my engine.

Also, Melling ships many of their pumps with additional springs designed to produce different pressures so you don't have to shim them if you don't want to. I kept the standard (yellow?) spring in the M395HV I installed and I have great pressure throughout the range. If you install a Melling pump, the green (thicker) ring that comes with it is the correct one for our truck engines. Note, my engine is an aluminum block, so the high volume pumps are generally recommended for those applications because of greater thermal expansion of the block relative to the hardened steel parts operating within it.

Finally, the OP asked about the tensioner. We've seen the factory ones fail occasionally around here. Speaking for myself, I wouldn't even think of replacing the cam without replacing the tensioner. In my case, I was moving to a 3-bolt (non-VVT) cam, so I used the simpler LS1-style (bowtie) dampener and now won't need to worry about a tensioner failing in the future. It's a PITA to drop the pan to replace the pump, o-ring and tensioner, but the peace of mind that comes with it was worth it to me.

 

[Geotrash]

Well, the cam is out. I'm not sure if it looks all that bad or not. The "pitting" certainly seemed to look worse on my phone when I made those videos earlier. With my bare eyes, it doesn't look all that terrible (and I don't need readers... yet ). So maybe I created a whole bunch of extra work for myself. Or maybe not. You guys tell me, is this cam toast? I'm replacing it anyway at this point. Just curious on your opinions.

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We all have our preferences, and one of mine is to never reuse a cam that looks like that. Could you and get away with it for a while? Probably. Will it last the life of the engine if that's 100K or more? Highly doubtful. We've had members here install brand new cams that didn't have perfectly smooth lobe surfaces due to that brand's finishing practices, and experienced a lot of extra valve train noise - to the point that they were annoyed enough to yank the cam and get one from a different manufacturer.

 

[jmo2610]

+1. I replaced the valve in the oil pan with a new one when I did my cam swap, knowing that I could plug it as well. I was installing a high volume oil pump, so it seemed like extra insurance against oil pressure being too high, etc, but I know now that I needn't have worried, and it's a pop-off style valve anyway. In any case, the new valve will last the life of my engine.

Also, Melling ships many of their pumps with additional springs designed to produce different pressures so you don't have to shim them if you don't want to. I kept the standard (yellow?) spring in the M395HV I installed and I have great pressure throughout the range. If you install a Melling pump, the green (thicker) ring that comes with it is the correct one for our truck engines. Note, my engine is an aluminum block, so the high volume pumps are generally recommended for those applications because of greater thermal expansion of the block relative to the hardened steel parts operating within it.

Finally, the OP asked about the tensioner. We've seen the factory ones fail occasionally around here. Speaking for myself, I wouldn't even think of replacing the cam without replacing the tensioner. In my case, I was moving to a 3-bolt (non-VVT) cam, so I used the simpler LS1-style (bowtie) dampener and now won't need to worry about a tensioner failing in the future. It's a PITA to drop the pan to replace the pump, o-ring and tensioner, but the peace of mind that comes with it was worth it to me.

Well, now you have me second guessing some things. I'm replacing mine with a stock 5.3 cam, so I wasn't moving to the 3-bolt. Because I planned on using a stock cam, I didn't buy the different dampener. I also did not buy a new oil pump, but now you got me thinking I should have.

 

[Geotrash]

Well, now you have me second guessing some things. I'm replacing mine with a stock 5.3 cam, so I wasn't moving to the 3-bolt. Because I planned on using a stock cam, I didn't buy the different dampener. I also did not buy a new oil pump, but now you got me thinking I should have.

Not necessarily. If yours has VVT, it's probably worth the extra 15 lb ft around town to keep it. In which case, you'll want to keep the factory-style tensioner, though I do recommend replacing it with new. In my case, I was working on a 6.2 and the dyno tests for the cam I used showed no losses down low but nice gains in the midrange and higher, where I need them for towing. So I didn't care about VVT in my application since it's mostly for fuel economy on these anyway.

All of this reminds me - I don't think we ever established which model year and engine you're working with.

 

[j91z28d1]

Well, the cam is out. I'm not sure if it looks all that bad or not. The "pitting" certainly seemed to look worse on my phone when I made those videos earlier. With my bare eyes, it doesn't look all that terrible (and I don't need readers... yet ). So maybe I created a whole bunch of extra work for myself. Or maybe not. You guys tell me, is this cam toast? I'm replacing it anyway at this point. Just curious on your opinions.

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looking at it. it's worth replacing. I mean it's a pretty crappy job to change lifters and they have gotten super expensive. if the cam wipes out new lifters I'd be pissed. Last I looked lifters cost more than a cam. so worth it for that alone.